For Immediate Release

Pipeline Protesters Greet President Obama at Fundraiser in New York

Activists against piping dirty tar sands oil into the U.S. ask Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline

WASHINGTON - As President Obama arrives here for a Democratic campaign fundraiser
today, activists with signs and banners are calling on him to oppose the
Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry dirty tar sands oil to the U.S.

“The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would leave many communities
vulnerable to oil spills and leaks,” said Alex Moore, dirty fuels
campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “Piping tar sands oil across the
United States would pollute the air and water, ultimately harming the
health of people in the path of the pipeline.”

The demonstration taking place today outside the Roosevelt Hotel in
Manhattan was organized by Friends of the Earth and New York Action
Network. Demonstrators are confronting the president with a banner
reading: “President Obama: Stop the Keystone Pipeline, Protect Our
Water.”

At the same time in Washington, D.C., a delegation of indigenous
leaders from the United States and Canada were meeting with the White
House Council on Environmental Quality to express their concerns about
tar sands development in their communities.

“When New Yorkers elected President Obama, we were voting for the clean
energy future he promised, not more dirty oil pipelines,” said Cat
Glenn, a student at Fordham University and member of the New York Action
Network. “President Obama has an opportunity to show leadership by
denying the permit for the pipeline and preventing future fossil fuel
disasters.”

The Keystone XL pipeline would carry oil from Canada’s tar sands, the
dirtiest oil available, through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas,
Oklahoma and Texas. In recent weeks, Congress has been investigating
pipeline safety following incidents in Michigan and Illinois that
spilled a combined one million gallons of oil.

Friends of the Earth is the U.S. voice of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, with member groups in 77 countries. Since 1969, Friends of the Earth has fought to create a more healthy, just world.

Further

With the toxic Bibi circus in town - cue talk of "tentacles of terror" - find hope in the extraordinary Combatants For Peace, a joint effort by weary Israeli and Palestinian veterans of violence who've laid down their guns to fight for peace. Led by a former IDF soldier and Fatah militant who both lost daughters to the conflict's "unrightable wrongs," they insist on the need to "hear what is painful" and talk to your 'enemies': "Partners for peace always exist. You only have to look for them."